BUNS watched as some sort of a large celebration began in the town. Every OSZA that was present in the town seemed to be involved in it. BUNS wondered how a town as small as this one, in this kind of a country no less, had the kind of resources, not to mention water, to put on such a celebration, considering how such towns in similar countries were faring in the other parts of the planet.

​

“SKIMMY… That bincha never believed us, you know,” BUNS told her furry companion, as she took another large swig and continued watching the celebrations.

​

“I did my best to convince her. I even got my brother to tell her everything, in his own words… But that kuncha… that kuncha never believed us, SKIMMY. Despite all our efforts. How could she not see the pain my brother was going through? Her own son!”

​

“She took his word over ours. That conniving, child molesting fakuchin piece of excrement. She believed him. She continued to keep us there, despite our protests. That damned religion of hers. A bunch of nonsense constructed around false gods and false teachings. None of it changed her mind. None of it made a difference. She should have left that cursed ANJALIKA she kept us in the second she realized that her son was suffering. Whether what we had told her was true or not shouldn’t have mattered. The fact that that disgusting place was destroying her son should have been enough. But for some reason, it wasn’t. For some reason, those useless gods she prayed to, a futile exercise I might add, were more important to her than her own children.”

​

“I never understood it, SKIMMY. It never made sense to me. But then I realized that nothing she did made sense. She was a stupid OSZA living a useless life. She was trapped in servitude, of one kind or another. She blindly served those gods of hers, and blindly believed the creeps who claimed to speak for them. And when she was not serving her religion, she served our father. Another useless OSZA who wasn’t content with destroying himself. He ended up destroying his family as well. Had he not become that husk, that addicted thing, the one that constantly craved those painkillers, my brother would have had a normal childhood. He is as responsible as she is for what my little brother went through. Poor thing. He was faultless in it all, SKIMMY. And yet, he was the one who paid the price for their mistakes.”

​

“I saw what the world was that day, SKIMMY. I saw its truth. I actually understood a lot of things that day. I realized that I had to protect myself. Nobody else would. Not even my parents. I understood the true nature of religion. I had never believed in it as fanatically as my mother did. But I did believe that the gods were out there, looking after us, and when bad things happened, like my father’s accident, it was because they were a part of their great plan. But what that SPRITE did to my brother, SKIMMY… that brought the truth out. I realized that there were no gods, that religion was a load of fakuchin garbage, nothing but a way for the worst type of kunchas to fool others into doing all sorts of things for them. What kind of gods would create a plan that did such horrific things to little children? What kind of beings would allow such a thing to happen? It was all a lie, SKIMMY. The facade had been pulled back. And I could truly see things for the way they were for the first time in my life.”

​

BUNS patted the SKIMMA on the head as she took another swig of her bottle. The town’s celebrations were in full swing, and she silently watched them for a while, as she held the SKIMMA close to her.

​

“I don’t know why, SKIMMY… But I feel responsible for it all. I feel like I should have seen it, much sooner than I did. I feel like I should have been able to stop it before it even happened. There is a part of me that knows that I was just a child as well, and it was my parents’ responsibility… no, their duty, to protect my brother from such things. But every other part of me feels like I should have protected him. I shouldn’t have let him down. I should have known. I shouldn’t have been so busy playing and having fun and what not. I took too long to notice that something was wrong. I hate feeling this way. But I often do, especially on this fakuchin day.”

​

BUNS fell silent after that. She continued to drink, and watch the celebrations that were in full swing underneath her, as she did everything in her power to hold back the tears.